Maleficent

Maleficent (2014)

Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Leslie Manville, Sam Riley, and Brenton Thwaites

Directed by Robert Stromberg

Written by Linda Woolverton

Click here for my current Letterboxd review

Click here for the original RyMickey Rating

Current RyMickey Rating:  B

Free Fire

Free Fire (2017)

Starring Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley, and Noah Taylor

Directed by Ben Wheatley

Written by Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  A group of criminals meets up with weapons salesmen at an empty warehouse when chaos erupts and bullets start flying everywhere.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Elysium

Elysium (2013)

Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Wagner Moura, and Diego Luna

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

While Elysium takes place in the mid-22nd century, the basis of its plot shows us that the battle between the haves and the have-nots hasn't changed much 150 years from now.  Of course, rich people are bad, poor people are good, and there's no middle ground.  If you buy into this conceit you're probably a liberal, you may enjoy Neill Blomkamp's flick, but I found this dystopian future (so many dystopian futures lately in film) tiresome and obnoxious.

By the late 21st century, Earth has become diseased and polluted.  With the run-down land, Earth's wealthiest inhabitants fled to the space colony of Elysium in order to continue their way of life.  Elysium is just like Earth used to be except for the fact that this controlled environment drifts along through space.  Down on Earth, Max (Matt Damon) is a hard-working guy who's had his share of trouble with the law.  He ends up getting into a horrible accident at work in which he is exposed to a large amount of radiation which only gives him three days to live.  Rather than spend it on the hell that is Earth, he decides that he's going to try and do all he can to get to Elysium.  An associate named Spider (Wagner Moura) agrees to help him, but first he asks that Max steal some information from a powerful executive (William Fichtner) that will allow Spider to possibly take control of Elysium.  Through some convoluted nonsense, Max ends up undergoing a surgery that gives him a powerful exoskeleton that protects him when he goes to meet the exec and...yeah...I'm just gonna stop there, because can you top the notion of a powerful exoskeleton?

Seeing as how Max is trying to bring down Elysium (or at the very least make it more open to the general populous), many on Elysium aren't happy about this including Elysium's Secretary of Defense Delacourt (Jodie Foster).  Foster employs some weird accent (part South African-part Annoying) and couples that with some awkwardly-mannered jerky movements that make her presence off-the-charts odd (and not in a good way).  Toss in a weirdly overacting Sharlto Copley as some Elysium agent living on Earth who attempts to take out Max and Matt Damon ends up looking like one of the best actors ever to grace the screen in comparison.

Elysium looks ragged and worn-down from the outset (which I guess is the point), but it couldn't even visually intrigue me to make up for the lukewarm story and horrid acting.  It certainly doesn't help that the overarching theme of "rising up to defeat the man" felt tired and irksome.  Neil Blomkamp may have had success with the Best Picture-nominated District 9 (which I thought itself was overrated), but this just felt like more of the same in all aspects and it pales in comparison.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Oldboy

Oldboy (2013)

Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Michael Imperioli, and Samuel L. Jackson

A Spike Lee Joint

***This film is currently steaming on Netflix**

Maybe it's just because I haven't seen the original, but I don't quite understand what all the uproar was about when Spike Lee's remake of the Japanese film Oldboy came out last year.  To me, Lee has produced a slick, exciting, well shot (though somewhat ludicrous plot-wise) revenge film that moves along at a rather rapid pace.  I found the piece quite effective in mood and tone with a strong leading performance by Josh Brolin.

It's 1993 and Joe Doucett (Brolin) is a sleazy alcoholic advertising executive who fails to give his wife and daughter child support on a recurring basis.  One evening, after a failed meeting with a client, Joe gets himself drunk to a point of unconsciousness while walking along the city streets.  When he awakens, he finds himself in a hotel room from which he cannot escape.  While imprisoned, he sees on tv that his wife has been murdered and that he is the prime suspect.  Despite his pleas, his captors never reveal their faces and keep him locked in the room for twenty years at which point he is inexplicably released back into the world.  His ordeal, however, is not over.  Once out, Joe receives a phone call from a mysterious man who tells him that he has three days to figure out why he was imprisoned or else his (now twenty-something) daughter will be killed.

Ultimately, Oldboy is saved by both Spike Lee's unique and refreshing swift direction and Brolin's compelling performance as a man who, despite his slimeball personality before, never deserved to be put into the horrifying predicament he was placed.  Beyond those two things, the plot of Oldboy revels in lunacy.  I won't even get into Sharlto Copley's over-the-top B-movie level villain and the absolutely insane reason behind imprisoning Joe for twenty years.  It's laughably bad -- and surprisingly uncomfortable to watch play out.  However, despite this pretty major plot point issue (and a few other rather disturbing storylines that I won't delve into for fear of ruining the film for you), I still found Oldboy to be a unique piece of American cinema that pleasantly surprised me.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Maleficent

Maleficent (2014)

Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville, Sam Riley, and Brenton Thwaites

Directed by Robert Stromberg

Perhaps it's faint praise to tout Maleficent as being better than Disney's recent live action interpretations of Alice in Wonderland and Oz: The Great and Powerful considering that the former was horrendous and the latter was nothing to write home about.  Still, if Disney's going to insist on reinterpreting family classics, they're gradually starting to learn from their previous disappointments.

Moreso than their previous attempts, Maleficent draws greatly from Disney's animated classic Sleeping Beauty (yes, the Disney Discussion will be returning in September after a very long hiatus), twisting that story to its own whims.  In the animated film, Maleficent was pure evil, but here this formerly friendly fairy only turns fiendish when a neighboring kingdom's ruler tries to take over her home.  Years later, still hellbent on revenge thanks to an additional subplot involving stolen fairy wings (naturally), Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) hears that King Stefan and his wife are expecting a baby.  When the young Aurora is born, Maleficent appears at the festivities and curses the girl to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into an unending sleep upon her sixteenth birthday only to be awakened by true love's kiss.  Sound familiar?  The remainder of the tale follows the storyline of Sleeping Beauty quite closely -- three fairies Knotgrass, Flittle, and Thistletwit (Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, and Juno Temple) -- raise the growing Aurora (played by Elle Fanning as a teen) in the woods away from all civilization in hopes that this will keep her safe.

However, unlike the previous Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent keeps a careful eye on Aurora and begins to feel sorry for what she's done to the girl who played no part in harming her.  This gentle, kind, magnanimous Maleficent is the change -- and it's not necessarily a change for the better.  For starters, Angelina Jolie is fantastic when she plays the title character for all her deliciously over-the-top scenery-chewing evilness.  Let's face it -- Maleficent is a quintessentially evil character and Jolie really embodies that aspect of the role.  However, when the film forces her character to downplay the nastiness and embrace niceness, things begin to falter a bit and become much less interesting.  Jolie certainly still is a presence, but it's not quite the presence we really long for her to be here.  Fortunately, as Jolie's Maleficent turns disappointingly kind, we're also able to see the innocence of Elle Fanning's Aurora which she displays perfectly to a tee.  You can almost see why Maleficent decides to befriend Aurora -- almost -- until you realize that this bastardization of a true cinematic villain is kind of boring to watch.

Still, despite my qualms which I admit are rather important in the grand scheme of the film, I liked Maleficent.  Maybe it's because I went in with such low expectations, but Jolie's performance certainly is solid.  I only wish she was able to be as gloriously evil as her title character should've been allowed to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Europa Report

Europa Report (2013)

Starring Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Karolina Wydra, Daniel Wu, and Embeth Davidtz

Directed by Sebastián Cordero

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Europa Report can't hold a candle to this year's other "lost in space"-themed epic Gravity, but this little low-budget found footage/documentary-style science fiction pic is actually well produced with surprisingly decent special effects and a interesting storyline that is smarter than expected.  Granted, as the film reaches its climax, it teeters out a bit getting too chaotically frantic for its own good, but it still musters up enough goodwill in its previous hour that it makes it worth a watch should its story appeal to you.

A six-person international crew is shuttling their way through space on the Europa One mission -- the first manned attempt to go beyond our moon and eventually reach one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, which is believed to contain water and, henceforth, perhaps additional life forms.  Much of the crew's privately funded mission has been aired on television, but six months into their flight, a solar flare knocks the crew out of communication with mission control.  They continue to proceed (though not without significant consequences) and eventually reach Europa at which point things expectedly take a turn for the worse.

Rather than tell its story in a linear fashion, director Sebastián Cordero and writer Philip Gelatt begin the tale as if we're watching a documentary.  We hear Dr. Unger (Embeth Davidtz), the CEO of Europa Ventures, as she narrates the tale of the six person crew.  We also hear first-hand narration from pilot Rosa Dasque (Anamaira Marinca) as she relays to us what was happening on board the shuttle while the mission was taking place.  With the documentary format and the premise that cameras were strategically placed within the shuttle for the reality tv aspect of the mission, Cordero and Gelatt jump back and forth through time, revealing pieces of the mission gradually.  Admittedly, this non-linear gimmick is probably the most disappointing aspect of the film and really is just a ploy to up the tension. Ultimately, it comes back to bite them as the film's final half hour is told linearly and feels a bit "out of place" amongst the rest of the film because of it.

Still, the director gets some nice performances out of all of his cast including District 9's Sharlto Copley and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Michael Nyqvist being the "big names" in the group.  The cast of characters is never forced to do anything "stupid" for the sake of the plot and their actions and reactions feel genuine which is a pleasant treat for a movie that so easily could've tried to be a "thriller" or "horror" film.  The fact that Europa Report never went that route is quite admirable.  It never dumbs down its plot which is more focused on "science" than anything else and I'm sure that's the reason why it never made it out of the ten or so arthouses (if that) where it probably screened.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The A-Team

The A-Team (2010)

Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley, and Patrick Wilson

Directed by Joe Carnahan

I've never seen an episode of the television show The A-Team, so I have no clue if this flick is some bastardization of the premise.  The lack of connection to the show may have helped my opinion of the flick as I shockingly enjoyed this ridiculous action movie.  Granted, I tend to like my action movies a little more grounded in reality, but despite the ludicrousness of many a scene, I enjoyed this one.  

I hate to harp on Stallone's The Expendables, but a little injection of humor into that one may have helped things out quite a bit as the cast of The A-Team realizes that when you're dealing with ridiculous plotlines that have army tanks parachuting out of airplanes you need to have fun with things.  As much as I want to dislike the smarmy Bradley Cooper, I liked his machismo in this one.  He was seemingly enjoying himself while working on this one and it paid off.  His pairing with the more solemn Liam Neeson worked quite well.  While I wish they could have maybe found a better Mr. T clone than the wooden Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Cooper and Neeson more than made up for Jackson's inadequacies.  

Yeah, I could get into plot here, but it really doesn't matter.  The whole thing's silly and so insanely implausible that if I sat here and typed it out, I think I'd wonder what the hell was wrong with me for liking the movie.  So, instead, I'll just say that while The A-Team is no masterpiece, it absolutely kept my interest for two hours and is worth your time if you want some mindless entertainment.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - District 9 (2009)

Starring Sharlto Copley
Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Let me state my one big problem with this movie upfront, because, overall, it was a pretty good flick. The film starts off as a faux documentary. Everything that the audience sees is from news footage, security cameras, or documentary interviews. About thirty minutes in, however, it shifts to be a mixture of the documentary style and just a regular movie. Then, about twenty minutes after that, it simply becomes a regular movie. At the end, it shifts back to the mixture of the two styles again. I kind of wish the filmmakers were ballsy enough to go documentary-style all the way through. Now, the way the flick is written/set up, there's no way they could've done that. However, for some reason, I feel like it would've been a little more clever even though we've seen it before (Cloverfield, Blair Witch).

It's tough to discuss this movie without discussing a major plot point that happens about 1/3 of the way through, but simply enough, an alien spacecraft began hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa, about twenty years ago. The aliens seemingly didn't want to destroy humankind, but we nasty humans took them out of their spacecraft and shoved them District 9, a detainee-ish camp where they've remained for two decades (I don't know much about South African history so I could be way off base, but I'm sure there's some correlation to apartheid here [apartheid was in South Africa, right?]). Now, the government wants to move them to District 10, another camp that will be further away from the major South African city. Long story short, something goes wrong during the process.

Simply put, I enjoyed the film, but it's certainly not without its faults. The aliens looked good up close, but when they were far away from the camera, they absolutely looked computer-generated. The film takes a bit to get started as well and there's a surprising lack of tension throughout. And then there's my issue from the first paragraph.

Still, the flick wasn't too bad. The final thirty minutes were pretty darn fun to watch (I'll just say that aliens have cool guns that can do some nifty things). Admittedly, I didn't know too much about this one going into it with the exception that it has a near 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's certainly not that good (although my positive rating wouldn't be a smashed tomato on that website either), but it's a pretty decent sci-fi film.

The RyMickey Rating: B